First Set of Little “Hands” Day 1

This was a long week, but incredible things happened!

First of all, we discovered that Jameson was getting his top two teeth the morning of departure. Not good. Almost 400 miles in the car with a teething 7 month old who hates his car seat = quite unpleasant times. After 7 long hours we finally made it to Portland where we stayed with some good friends who also have a baby! We thought this is going to be great, the two babies playing together, entertaining each other, and sharing toys! Guess again, it was more like jealousy, setting each other off into crying fits, and both waking up at all hours of the night. Luckily for our gracious hosts we were up early and gone everyday, this allowed them to have some peace and quite.

Day 1:

The Advanced Arm Dynamics team eagerly awaited our arrival and welcomed us with open arms. They work with one patient at a time to provide the best possible care and treatment. Their policy is wonderful and meant that the entire place was open to us and we could make ourselves at home. This was especially important with a baby, it allowed us the freedom to make bottles, bring in mass quantities of toys, and provide him a quiet place to nap!

Very cool fact #1: Jameson is their youngest patient ever!

Back in September we had made a long-term life long prosthetic plan for Jameson with Mac (our Prosthetist) and Kerstin (our Occupational and Physical Therapist). Basically this plan involves fitting Jameson with many sets of prosthesis over the course of his growing years. Each set will be completely different and custom-built just for him.

In the original plan we had decided to start with a basic set of passive “baby” arms that could be moved manually (by us) straight or bent depending on the task at hand, ie. crawl, hold bottle, grab toy etc. But coming in that first morning Mac had come up with an even better design as he was not happy with the original one. This meant that Mac and his technician Cullen would be building this set right there on site in the coming week.

Day 1-Step one: making a silicone lined sleeve for each arm, this is to protect Jameson’s skin under the prosthesis.

Step two: pt and working with the sleeves to make sure Jameson would tolerate wearing them.

Step three: casting each side to make a mold for the prosthesis.

Step four: more pt and mom and dad learning to put sleeves on while Mac and Cullen work in the shop on the prosthesis.

End of Day 1-Step five: sleeve is covered with a sock to help sleeve fit snug in prosthesis, Mac here fitting prototype upper arm part.

More to come in next post….